Today is the third anniversary of the first lockdown, a day of infamy that, I hope, will go down in history as a mistake never to be repeated. But we cannot take that for granted, which is why I’m taking this opportunity to ask you to make a donation to the Daily Sceptic.
Regular readers won’t need me to point out that the risk of another lockdown is still with us. We now know that the threat posed by SARS-CoV-2, particularly to healthy people under the age of 65, was wildly exaggerated, while the costs of the various interventions designed to ameliorate it were far higher than anticipated. Yet while this might be bleedin’ obvious to us, the wider public appears to believe not only that locking us in our homes was the correct response to the outbreak of a fairly mild respiratory virus three years ago, but that the Government should have been even stricter. According to a recent YouGov poll, 37% of the public think the Government’s infection-control measures weren‘t strict enough, compared to just 19% who thought they were too strict.
Even if we don’t think the risk of the Government locking us down again in response to another surge in COVID-19 case is particularly high, how is the political class likely to react if we’re faced with another pandemic – H1N5 jumping the species barrier, for instance? Optimists believe the public inquiry will conclude that indiscriminately quarantining the entire population was a mistake, given the catastrophic costs to our health, economy and well-being, but it’s unlikely to pronounce its verdict for seven years. You can bet your bottom dollar the Government will come under pressure to place us all under house arrest again in the interim, even it it’s only to avert a ‘climate emergency’. So we need to keep making the case that such a grotesque interference in our liberty in the name of keeping us ‘safe’ is completely unacceptable.
I wouldn’t be asking you to make a donation if it wasn’t needed. But regrettably we’ve had to shelve our plans to finance the site via advertising thanks to the unrelenting attacks on the Daily Sceptic by various ‘fact checking’ bodies, as well as the myriad shadowy agencies and private companies in the ‘disinfo’ sector that comprise what Michael Shellenberger and Matt Taibbi have dubbed the ‘Censorship-Industrial Complex’.
One agency in particular – NewsGuard, part-funded by Microsoft and part-funded by the U.S. Defence Department – has successfully ‘disrupted’ our attempt to attract advertising. At the top of its page about the Daily Sceptic it says: “Proceed with maximum caution: This website is unreliable because it severely violates basic journalist standards.”
Here’s what I wrote about my run-in with NewsGuard last December:
An organisation called NewsGuard, which ranks websites according to how ‘safe’ they are for companies to advertise on (among other things), decided to downgrade the Daily Sceptic on the grounds that we frequently publish ‘misinformation’ about the Covid vaccines and climate change. I was sent a long email by an employee of the company, listing all the articles on the site that had been red-flagged by supposedly impartial ‘fact checking’ organisations – as well as NewsGuard’s own employees – and inviting me to mount a defence. Knowing how damaging a poor NewsGuard rating can be to a site’s ability to attract advertising – and this coincided with our decision to start selling ads on the site – I sent back a lengthy response in good faith, rebutting each of the fact-checks in turn, but saying I would link to them beneath the articles in question (as well as to our rebuttals). I duly spent a couple of days sticking ‘postscripts’ beneath the articles, as well as below some additional pieces NewsGuard hadn’t mentioned but which had also fallen foul of fact-checkers – and I let NewsGuard know about that, thinking it would be pleased. After all, I thought, it would be able to tell its big clients – which include Microsoft – how it had prompted a website that publishes ‘misinformation’ to include links to dozens of fact-checking websites.
Instead, NewsGuard wrote back to tell me it had downgraded the Daily Sceptic to 37.5 out of 100, about half the points it had before. The reason was because I hadn’t said beneath the articles that the content that had been identified by the fact-checkers as false was in fact false. My defence is that in every case the fact-checkers hadn’t red-flagged the articles in question because they contained factually inaccurate information; rather, they just disagreed with our interpretation of the data. But – as is common among fact-checkers, who are invariably Left-of-centre – they pretended none of this was up for debate and labelled our interpretation as ‘misinformation’. I explained all this to my NewsGuard correspondent, but it didn’t cut any ice, presumably because he shares the same ideological biases as the fact-checkers. …
The American Institute of Economic Research, which published the Great Barrington Declaration, has had its own difficulties with NewsGuard, which Phil Magness, Director of Research and Education at AIER, labels a “propaganda entity”. Magness’s piece on NewsGuard and how it operates is well worth your time.
Another thing that makes it hard to run the Daily Sceptic as a commercial business is that Facebook keep suspending my personal Facebook account, as well as the website’s account, for supposedly violating its ‘standards’. We were banned for 30 days in December and, after briefly being allowed to post again, we were banned again, this time for longer. The accounts were restored a couple of weeks ago, but a warning note made clear that if we continue to publish ‘misleading’ claims about the lockdowns, the mRNA vaccines and climate change, we will be permanently banned. It then helpfully linked to the suspect articles that had led to our previous bans and at the top of the list was a piece by Gus Dalgleish – or, to give him his full title, Angus George Dalgleish FRCP FRCPath FMedSci, a professor of oncology at St George’s, University of London. Does Facebook really believe an ‘independent fact-checker’ with a degree in Media Studies from the University of Hicksville knows more about how the mRNA vaccines affect someone’s vulnerability to cancer than Professor Dalgleish? Nevertheless, this was branded a “post that goes against our standards on misinformation about vaccines”.
Yet in spite of all these obstacles thrown in our way, the Daily Sceptic continues to attract a huge global audience. In January, we got 2,401,131 page views, a new record. We’ve also launched a podcast with Nick Dixon – the Weekly Sceptic – and the last episode was downloaded more than 15,000 times. On May 20th, we’ve organised our first live recording of the podcast at the Emmanuel Centre in Westminster – more on that soon. Yet as with the Daily Sceptic, it’s proving difficult to attract advertising on the podcast, meaning it’s a money loser for us. The only thing keeping the bailiffs from the door – of my garden shed, that is, we don’t have anything as grand as an office – are the generous donations of readers.
So, if you continue to enjoy our work, please think about making a donation to mark the third anniversary of the first lockdown. Will Jones, Nick Dixon, Ian Rons, Noah Carl, Chris Morrison and the rest of the team devote a huge amount of time to bringing you a high-quality product – no, NewsGuard, we don’t violate basic journalistic standards – and the only way we can continue doing that is with the support of our readers. Remember, you only have to donate £5 a month to be able to comment (or £50 to comment for a year). You can donate by clicking here.
A big thank you to all those people who have donated already in 2023. It’s hugely appreciated.
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What would these ”completely different set of circumstances” look like then? Do give us a clue, lady. This BS is so blatantly a strategy to mess with the minds of the British public and keep them waiting and wondering as we head into the winter months. Has ‘flu season’ been reinstated btw? Or has it been redefined as ‘Covid season’ for now and ever more? Because how many people have a box of flu tests at home or carried out as protocol if you go into hospital? It’ll be Covid World once more, you watch. So what this woman is alluding to I have no idea, but what I’m wondering is if she’d even pass the litmus test that any sane person should pass with flying colours, and tell us what a woman is.
Hosepipe ban, anyone?
Perhaps this is what she’s hinting at. Same old same old BBC bilge, which allows for the reintroduction of flu as a perceived ‘threat’, because we know they’ve got many flu jabs they need to use up and earn money on. But if that’s the case ( ‘case’ being the operative word here ) then do we now have LFT/PCR tests which supposedly detect flu? Or are they basically just banking on ”scaring the pants off” enough people to get them queuing up for their Jonestown jabs? Yeah, keep sucking up your daily dose of Kool-Aid and pledging your allegiance to the Covidian cult!
”Covid will “continue to surprise us”, England’s deputy chief medical officer has warned ahead of another tricky winter for the NHS.
Dr Thomas Waite says the disease does not yet behave in a seasonal way, making it less predictable than other winter illnesses.
He encourages anyone eligible for the free flu and/or Covid vaccine to get the jabs and protect their health.
Last year the flu vaccine stopped 25,000 people from being hospitalised.
But scientists estimate that last winter in England, flu still caused more than 14 thousand excess deaths and Covid caused more than ten thousand.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-66963982
What this disingenuous POS is saying is that she has been tipped the wink that another “pandemic” is on the way. She also knows that one of the most successful ways of disrupting society is to close schools. However, she has to present ‘reasonableness’ so states that closing schools is only an option.
The teaching unions now know that more than a couple of sniffles per class would provide hefty ammunition for an out brothers out.
Looks like everything is in place for the Davos Deviants.
Back in March 2020 there was an interview with a Korean COVID-19 expert and as well as the assertions that China controlled this well with strong restrictions, there was this answer about education.
Stephen Park (Interviewer): “In Korea the start of the school is being postponed, people are practicing social distancing, and the government even sends regular updates via texts. How well do you think this is all being handled?”
Professor Kim Woo-joo “On March 20th, a couple days ago, the prime minister made a special announcement that he strongly recommends social distancing. So religious facilities, places people hang out, like bars, and indoor gyms… From march 20 for 2 weeks, these 3 types of places were strongly recommended to shut down. But this is not mandatory. People who are over 50 or 60 are following these protocols well. But teens and those in their 20s are not, because for teens in Korea, their education is very important. Even if they are sick and have a fever, they have to go to school and academy. The school year was postponed for elementary, middle, and high school because of COVID-19, but in the evening kids go to academies. So even if the government pushed back school, kids will still go to academy to study at night. Since I checked last weekend 90% of academies are open. In Asia, the college you go to determines your future.”
So not only did the kids continue their education, even when infected, but they were taught, presumably by someone much older!!!
Evidence is at 25:11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAk7aX5hksU&t=1808s
You Need To Listen To This Leading COVID-19 Expert From South Korea | STAY CURIOUS #15
Also, notice that this Professor is a Covid expert and in the same month that the pandemic was declared. That’s pretty good going as I thought becoming an expert in something can take years, if not decades.
This Disease X keeps coming up, like we’re being primed for the WHO/IHR tyranny.
In a different time, before the covid terror, that would have sounded like a sensible statement that one never knows what one may encounter in the future. It would have sounded like a very innocuous hypothetical statement.
But, after the covid terror, anything other than a rejection of lockdowns sounds downright menacing, because now we know the establishment is capable of terrible things we never imagined them capable of.
“Key lessons have still not been learned.”
There was NO pandemic.
Yes, hux, but you’re forgetting one minor but integral detail for successfully existing in Clown World; facts don’t matter. haha..
https://twitter.com/CartlandDavid/status/1708916535916388753/photo/1
What she means is that if the WHO warns us of a possible threat, then we must close down again. Oh, hang on, the WHO ammendamant comes into enforce on 1st December- the one where they can take away you ‘rights’.
I pity the fool.
https://twitter.com/MrT/status/1707487247119835456
What a stupid man.
If the adults don’t tolerate a lockdown then the children won’t have to.
Seriously though, did this happen today? Is it open season for just taking the Mick and rubbing the jab injured and bereaved people’s noses in it? Another AZ stooge has been knighted.
https://twitter.com/CartlandDavid/status/1708917693498147263
Bearing in mind they knew coronie was 99% survivable in 2020, one has to wonder if they have any limits on what they will do given whichever circumstances they choose to manipulate?
https://www.kusi.com/carlsbad-school-district-parents-hold-parking-lot-protest-in-support-of-reopening-schools/
Lets not forget that excess deaths are currently significantly above normal and not a peep from MSM or Govt…
Stange innit?
You only need watch the first 1 or 2 mins of this clip about the increase in cardiac arrests in Victoria, Australia, which unfortunately includes an 8yr old girl ( who thankfully survived ) but no acknowledgement of the elephant in the room of course.
https://twitter.com/7NewsMelbourne/status/1708713774130311283
I know there are plenty more intelligent things to say, but for the love of God I wish these bloody people would stop peppering everything they say “y’know…” all the bloody time. I know they’re cretins beyond redemption but for God’s sake just STOP IT!! What do they think they sound like? I would do anything to hear intelligent, well read, articulate people in public office. (The Moggmeister blew it for other reasons).
When all else fails Covid returns
I’m seeing a huge increase in people posting on social media that they have covid. Like it’s a badge of honour. There’s even one in a group I’m in who took three days of tests before she got the positive she clearly desperately wanted. I can’t bring myself to send get well wishes.
It absolutely is a badge of honour. My (fully jabbed, whether that’s 3 or 4 I have no idea) SIL has recently posted a photo of herself on FB, just finishing a half marathon. Absolutely amazing she could complete such a thing, she says, given she had “Covid – The Sequel” JUST THREE WEEKS AGO! What a terrible deadly disease, that you can run 13 miles shortly afterwards looking perfectly healthy. Cue the usual replies – you poor thing, aren’t you brave, isn’t covid terrible etc etc. How many times will they have to “have” it before it stops being newsworthy I wonder? It will be around forever IMO, so there are going to be a lot of “sequels” to boast about.
In other News at the Tory conference, BBC Evan Davis interviewed a Tory over 15 minute cities saying they’re just about everything in one place and everything else is a conspiracy theory. It was around 17:30 today Radio 4. The Tory guy said how residents are concerned about their freedom of movement etc while not mentioning Agenda 2030 where all the information is.
Keegan is dreadful, shouldn’t be in charge of any portfolio and certainly not children or health.
‘Asked by the Telegraph whether schools should be classified as critical infrastructure so there is more parliamentary scrutiny ahead of any future closures’, please notice that she doesn’t answer that question. More parliamentary scrutiny would obviously be a good idea (if you still believed in the parliamentary process at all).
These people are not fit for purpose.
They obviously think that trashing the education, mental health and therefore life chances of an entire generation of school-children wasn’t comprehensive enough.
So they need the wriggle room to double-down.
EVIL BASTARDS.